Many thanks to Ron Kasman for sending me this article for the site (back in October no less). It has also appeared elsewhere online, primarily the Collector’s Society Message Boards. I’m running it here as is, unedited, as I asked him if I could re-publish it here as it gives a fairly accurate look at what the comics scene was like forty years ago. Heads up that Ron’s language and perspective on what transpired is a little spicy and may offend some.

A little preface: before Cosmicon, Toronto hadn’t really had much of a convention scene.

In 1968, Captain George Henderson – owner of Canada’s first comics shop, Memory Lane, had brought Stan Lee to the city for the Triple FanFair (no doubt inspired by the convention of the same name that had been taking place in Detroit around the same time – the three fandoms in the name being science fiction, movies and comics). That event took place in tents on Markham Street (where Memory Lane used to be and currently where the Beguiling is). For the most part Canadian comic fans of this era in this region had to pile in a car and drive to Detroit, Chicago or primarily New York to attend a comic book convention. What happened at York University was pretty amazing and was the highlight for many young fans, a lot of whom would go on to work in comics or related things.

I should note that I see some of the folks mentioned here pretty regularly. Ron and I visited the New York Comic Con together this last October, and stayed with our mutual friend Walter Dickinson. Ronn Sutton just had a graphic novel published last week, and you can find him as a guest at many Canadian shows, primarily in Ontario and Quebec. I see Ken Ketter nearly every Saturday night when he comes by for his comics fix, he’s one of my regular customers at the Comic Book Lounge, here in Toronto.

COSMICON: 1972-1975

A Tell-All Expose by Ron Kasman

Steranko Poster for Cosmicon I

FLASH:
Steranko’s surrealistic, day-glo poster for Cosmicon,
distributed free in 1972,
just went for $212.00 Am. on Ebay!

CANUCK COMIC HISTORY LIVES!

In January of 1972 Cosmicon was potentially a horror show, both literally and figuratively. What saved it, in the immortal words of Howard Chaykin, was “Canadian Bacon”.

Ken Ketter was a horror film fan, a university sophomore who chose York Fine Arts over his old job at a soap factory, and the most courageous man I’ve ever met. He applied to Winter’s College of York University for $600 to put on a comic book/ SF/ horror movie convention… and they gave it to him!

I was a Winter’s student too, at least I was until I dropped out and couldn’t find a job even in a soap factory. I told Ken I’d help out. I brought in fan artist Ronn Sutton and fan publisher Mark Segel. Gloria Agnew was hired to do administrative work. Many, many others contributed to the convention. We invited Jim Steranko (comics), Gray Morrow (SF) and Alain Resnais (film) as our guests. We paid for their plane tickets and expected them to be the only celebrities in attendance.

As the big day approached things were all set to become a terrible mess. Hundreds of fans were coming in, some from as far away as Quebec, Ohio, Michigan and even Germany and we just didn’t have a lot going on to entertain them. As the VW minivan drove off to Toronto International Airport to pick up our guests, Mark Segel looked anguished and annoumced, “I wish this wasn’t going to happen”. But, what do you know, it went very well. Here’s why: European comic art was getting noticed in the U.S. through Jim Warren’s Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella magazines. Outside of that, most European comic art was inaccessible. The New York comic artists’ community (as well as most Americans, it seemed) was so ignorant of what Toronto was like that they naturally assumed that we all spoke French and that they’d find lots of comics by Philippe Druillet, Jean Giraud and others up here. When they arrived, the invited guests and many more that paid their own way — soo-prise!… no European comics! They should have phoned ahead.

Well, you’d think they’d have been disappointed but other factors entered. Cosmicon was probably the first comic convention ever held at a university. Back then, all the little fanboys like me treated the New York Comic Book artists like they were gods. So the girls who lived at the Winter’s College Residence (and would never ever sleep with a pimply creep like me) figured these guys from New York had to be important! The comic artists, not unlike rock stars, had gained a perk not known to us lesser beings — groupies! These comic geeks, by the sheer fact that they could draw better than the rest of us and whose faces had probably only recently cleared up, got laid!

Furthermore, the part of the convention not held in the Winter’s Women’s Dorm Rooms was held at the Absinthe Pub just steps away from our dealers’ room. Aside from the beer there was lots of dope which could be consumed with impunity on the liberal arts campus.

The next year the artists returned bringing friends, displays and slide shows. By year three Cosmicon was the place to be. Among other attendees that year were Jim Warren of Warren Publications; Carmine Infantino, editor-in-chief at D.C., Stan Lee from Marvel; Michele Eury, comic editor at Playboy and P.J.O’Rourke, the editor-in-chief of National Lampoon. There were so many big time pros that if the Absinthe beer had been teeming with salmonella, comics today would look quite different.

But Cosmicon became a political issue. Students at the left leaning university (which like North Korea, Cuba and Albania is still probably babbling about the truth of communism to this very day) thought too much money was being spent by the university for the benefit of Americans. Furthermore, the ever increasing budget shifted the convention to being student administered instead of fan administered. Most of the people who had ran it were about to graduate. Also I still wasn’t getting laid. Why bring Americans up to score with girls who’d have nothing to do with me?

Year Four was Cosmicon’s swan song. The budget was $24,000. This is back when a comic book cost $.20, a chocolate bar was dime and a year of university tuition was $600. We were the front page headline in Friday night’s Toronto Star. Pete and Geets, a popular comedy duo of the day, satirized us on their morning show on CHUM-FM and later came down as convention guests. We were the talk of the town.

Cosmicon II art by Michael William Kaluta

Memories:

Talking to Stan Lee for about an hour at a cocktail party. He was a tall, handsome man, dressed in high boots and suede. I stared and stared but I honestly couldn’t tell that he was wearing a wig.

Hippy comic scribe Steve Skeates being questioned at the border until they phoned the university and were told that he was a respected writer coming to York University to lecture.

T. Casey Brennan, Vampirella scripter, coming to Toronto and not knowing just where Cosmicon was taking place (we neglected to put the exact location in our first ad). He took a chance and asked a random geek on the subway and, of course, he knew!

Jeff Jones and Vaughn Bode together in a photo in the program book — as men!

Alain Resnais sticking the convention with unexpectedly high food and hotel bills.

Buying a $10 EC Portfolio from Ed April’s widow only because she was doing no business and as an organizer I felt responsible. It is worth about $200 today.

Ron Peterson, Winter’s student and perpetual life of the party, getting more attention than Jones, Wrightson and Kaluta put together.

Ken Ketter inviting Alice Cooper and being turned down then getting Ted Nugent and Amboy Dukes. They had had a hit with “Journey to the Center of Your Mind” but had yet to emerge with “Cat Scratch Fever”. I think Ken paid them $1100 for the concert. Admission was free with a Cosmicon pass.

Harry Kremer, comic book dealer, buying a stack of Wrightson coloured drawings at $50 to $100 each. His estate sold them thirty years later for more than 50 times that.

So where are they now? The people involved in Cosmicon became famous, dead, washed-up, struggling, jailbirds, real estate salesmen, comic artists, teachers, musicians, collectors, legends, rumours, and painters of motorcycle gas tanks and the sides of vans. Some of us grew up and some of us never would. Cosmicon was fun but looking back, it was hard to be nineteen. It was even harder to be nineteen and a comic fan. Back then I wished I was Jeff Jones and so did hundreds of other little geeks just like me. We lacked his talent, intelligence and drive. I was pretty sure at the time that he got a lot of action from the females at Cosmicon though now, it seems rather ironic, as he’s clearly crossed the gender boundary in recent years. Nonetheless, I’m absolutely sure he got to see Jody Winthrop’s tits because she posed naked as a model for his National Lampoon IDYL comic strip. She had great tits. I wonder what they look like today. They are probably still pretty good.

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While we have finalized some categories, some of the selection committees have asked for an extension, so we will announce all of the 2014 nominees the week of June 1.

You may have noticed I’ve cut back on the announcements of upcoming conventions — it’s getting to the point where there are so many events going on every week across the country that we aren’t able to give all of them the attention that they deserve. We suggest you consult the list of conventions across Canada that we have posted elsewhere on this website.

This week however is a busy one with a convention in Ottawa and the Beguiling’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival (in Toronto, obviously). The festival is also the host event for the annual Wright Awards for Canadian cartoonists who work on non-mainstream, independent books like the books published by awards sponsors Drawn + Quarterly, Conundrum Press and Koyama Press. The Giants of the North (their hall of fame) appears to be sponsored by CGA Comics, who is debuting the Nelvana of the Northern Lights collection at the event and using it to maintain interest in their future reprinting plans.

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This weekend, December 7-8, 2013 at the Ernst and Young Centre in Ottawa it’s the new OTTAWA POP EXPO from the same folks that bring you the Ottawa and Montreal Comic Cons.Recently, Informa Canada announced that they are expanding their recently purchased Fan Expo brand with a new show: FAN EXPO REGINA will be helf in Regina, Saskatchewan on May 3-4, 2014.

Speaking of Informa Canada, they are holding a one day Toronto ComiCON/AnimeCON on Sunday December 15, 2013 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Hall F (South Building). Admission is $10.

The week after that Hamilton gets the spotlight with the debut of the new Hammer Town Comic Con on Saturday, October 5th.

We barely scratched the surface of the story back in late August, but Hobbystar Marketing, Inc. – the company that puts on Fan Expo Canada, Fan Expo Vancouver and the Toronto ComiCON — was purchased earlier this summer by Informa Exhibitions, an English/Swiss Company that puts on events all around the world. It is literally one of the world’s powerhouse event organizers, with a history of putting on events that goes as far back as 1880 with the launch of IPEX, the oldest running print exhibition in London. The purchase has raised many questions, but the word for now is that it means business as usual for Canada’s largest comics-related event as the existing management is being absorbed into the Informa structure (here in Ontario they put on the One of a Kind Craft Shows so they have experience running events locally as well, so the old HSM team will be sharing their experience with others and learning from them as well). The Informa influence in this year’s show seems to have been more money for guests to help launch the expansion of the Expo into the entire Metro Toronto Convention Centre and the new Fan Expo Sports. Since they bought a brand, don’t expect them to change the name — chances are you may end up seeing the addition of more Fan Expo events in different locations around the world in the coming years.

The buzz on the floor of the Montreal ComicCon last weekend seemed to be that other people are looking at Toronto as a potential site for new comic cons. One exhibitor seemed to hint that a new player was coming to town, one with 10 years+ experience organizing comic shows (Reed Exhibitions perhaps?), or maybe Wizard is planning on reviving their dormant Wizard World Toronto (one artist I spoke to seemed convinced that was the case). It’s also been suggested that at least two* different GTA stores (one central, one west end) are looking at starting their own conventions, so who knows what the future holds.

(*I’m not interested in naming names until something more concrete is announced, but it’s definitely not my store.)

One event that was announced for 2014 that seems to be under construction is the new GTA Comic Con, which was supposed to debut next April in Oakville, ON. The website says that the dates and location are now changing, so we’ll let people know when we hear anything new.

That’s the fall update on the world of comic cons, there are some pretty high profile events comic up in November (HalCon, The Central Canada Comic Con, along with a new December event in Ottawa), we’ll be running stories on those when we get a little closer to their dates.

Needless to say, Comic book conventions and pop culture fairs are now big business and attracting a lot of interest. The big ones get bigger, and the fascination with them and the massive success of the big events (like San Diego, Seattle, Calgary, Toronto, Chicago and New York) will seem attractive to new investors, players and outside money. Will the bubble grow or burst? Only time will tell.

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So in 8 days the big show aka Fan Expo Canada starts at the Metro Convention Centre. This year the show is so massive they had to add a second building and for the first time ever the event will be in both the North and the South Buildings.

Most of the comics folk are in the South Building though, and that’s where the comics programming will be as well.

Many Joe Shuster Award nominees and winners (past and present) are at the event, and we encourage you to visit the website to look at the floorplans and schedules.

Our retail sponsors The Dragon and The Comic Book Lounge (my store) will be in the dealers section along with Harry Kremer award winning retailers Big B Comics (Hamilton) and the Silver Snail (Toronto).

There are two Canadian comics related panels worth checking out:

FRIDAY AUG 23 – 11:15 AM In room 703

THE CANADIAN SUPERHERO RENAISSANCE

With projects like the True Patriot anthology, the Captain Canuck webseries, the Lost Heroes documentary, The Wolverine movie and more – are we witnessing a Canadian superhero renaissance? Where is this all coming from? Does the industry need this? Will the market support it? Are Canadian superheroes poised to be the next big thing in comics?

During WWII the Canadian government initiated the War Exchange Conservation Act and Canadian artists stepped up to fill the void of comics on our newsstands.

Join moderator Ivan Kocmarek and a panel of industry experts as they discuss the first age of Canadian comics and characters like Iron Man, Johnny Canuck, Freelance, The Penguin and many other forgotten heroes and their impact on Canadian-made comics.

ALSO DON’T FORGET THE JOE SHUSTER AWARDS ARE TAKING PLACE ON SATURDAY NIGHT – JACKMAN HALL, ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO! Seating at 8pm – Ceremony to begin around 8:30PM

The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association is pleased to announce the venue of the 2013 Joe Shuster Awards Ceremony. The 8 2013 awards and 3 Hall of Fame presentations will be presented on SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2013 at JACKMAN HALL at the Art Gallery of Ontario, starting at 8:30 PM.

Seating: 200 – priority seating for nominees, their family and friends and other industry professionals, with limited general admission seating.

The Art Gallery of Ontario – 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON

The Art Gallery of Ontario is an art museum in Toronto’s Downtown Grange Park district, on Dundas Street West between McCaul Street and Beverley Street. Its collection includes more than 80,000 works spanning the 1st century to the present day.

Jackman Hall has it’s own entrance on McCaul Street, South of Dundas Street West (pictured above)

.About The Joe Shuster Awards

Established in 2004, The Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s first national and bilingual award recognizing outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics. The awards are named after pioneering Toronto-born artist Joe Shuster who, along with writer Jerry Siegel, created the iconic super-powered hero, Superman. The name is used with the approval of the Estate of Joe Shuster – Michael Catron, Estate Agent.

D-Day is here! The second edition of the Festival BD Montreal will begins today and will continue until June 2 at Espace La Fontaine in the park of the same name. 40 exhibitors and nearly 150 authors will be waiting for you in the beautiful sunshine along with ambassador Stéphane Archambault, honored guests Delaf and Dubuc (creators of the popular and award-winning Les Nombrils series aka The Bellybuttons) and special guest Guy Delisle for three days of outdoor festivities devoted to the world of the 9th art.

Festival-goers can take part in many activities in the program according to the following schedule:

Friday, May 31: 1pm to 9pm

Saturday, June 1: 10am to 7pm

Sunday, June 2: 10am to 5pm

Many signings are scheduled daily throughout the Festival.

For all the details and possible changes to the program, visit FBDM-montreal.ca

This project is supported by the Arts Council of Montreal, the Office of festivals and cultural events of the City of Montreal, the Caisse de la Culture and is carried out jointly with the Department of Cooperation and Cultural Action of the Consulate General of France in Quebec.

The FBDM is three days of meetings, discoveries and fun for the delight of comic book fans!

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So we need to start planning for 2013 — interested parties should contact me at kevin@joeshusterawards.com with their ideas and suggestions for next year.

Some of the things that need to be discussed are: coordinators, location, categories and fundraising.

Possible locations: Fan Expo Vancouver, Calgary Comic & Toy Expo, Fan Expo Canada, Ottawa Comic Con, Montreal Comic Con. Generally we would like to continue moving around, and with recent ceremonies in Calgary and Montreal, we would like to consider a new location/event with which to coincide so Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto are all strong possibilities. Given the timing involved we are looking at 2-4 day comic book conventions scheduled between late April and September. Picking a location will allow us to establish a working timeline between now and then for coordinating.

Speaking of coordinating, we are currently looking for coordinators for the Gene Day Award and the Harry Kremer Retailer Award. If you are interested, please contact me as above.

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Diamond has engineered a second free comic book day called HALLOWEEN COMICSFEST that is scheduled to coincide with Halloween. Instead of picking a day for everyone to hold it on, they are letting retailers pick which day on which to hold their Halloween ComicsFest activities, and so you should check with your local retailer to see what they have planned and on which day. Chances are it will be either on Saturday, October 27 or on Halloween itself, October 31st. There is a shop locator service on the ComicsFest website (click on the link above to visit).

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About three weeks ago, upon completion of my 2011-12 contract, I decided not to pursue renewal of my position as a coordinator for Hobbystar Marketing, so I will no longer be involved in Fan Expo Canada/Fan Expo Vancouver/Toronto ComiCON on any kind of organizational level. I do plan to have my store The Comic Book Lounge exhibit at the Toronto events, but the combined workload of the store, a full time job in medical research, as well as other activities (such as the JSAs) requires me to unload some peripheral responsibilities, so this was one of those I’ve decided to cut.

This now ends a complete decade of coordinating aspects of Toronto scene comic book conventions. My first major multi-day convention was back in November 2003, although the first one day event was in March of that same year.

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Montreal, QC – In a ceremony presided by JASON ROCKMAN and CATHERINE SMITH-DESBIENS at the MONTREAL COMIC-CON, the 8th Annual Joe Shuster Awards for Canadian Comic Book Creators and Retailers were presented to an enthusiastic crowd of nominees, friends and fans of the medium. Continue reading →

We’re now a mere 11 days away from the presentation of the 8th annual Joe Shuster Awards and we’ll be posting some updates as we near the event.

JURY DECISIONS

The Art Jury (Artist, Cover Artist and Webcomics) have finished their selections, as have the ones selecting the Dragon Prize and the Gene Day Award for Self-Publishing. That leaves the Retailer Jury and the Story Jury (Cartoonist and Writer), and we hope to have those wrapped up later today or early tomorrow.

HARRY KREMER RETAILER AWARD FINALISTS

The 10 stores have been narrowed down to a final five – watch for a release here shortly.

POSTER

Our promotional image is ready, just waiting for some final approvals.

HALL OF FAME

Our Hall of Fame committee has opted to pass on inducting a new member in 2012.

FINAL AWARDS LIST FOR 2012 (8 awards to be given out in Montreal on September 15):

Things may have slowed down considerably here on the site lately, as running a store as well as the awards, parts of the country’s largest comic-con and a day job have really taken a toll on my time. I had never expected to own a comic shop, but The Comic Book Lounge + Gallery has been growing steadily since we opened it back in February. Huge props go to manager Joe Kilmartin (formerly of the JSA Executive and former manager of Dragon Lady Comics), for handling the day to day aspects of running the Lounge.

If anyone has any interest in posting news items and articles here on the website, please contact me at kevin@joeshusterawards.com and we’ll get you hooked up.

It has been a very busy summer for everyone, with plenty of great news coming out of the San Diego con. A new series from Ed Brisson, Michael Walsh and Jordie Belaire called Comeback for Image. Also at Image, J. Bone will be doing a series called The Saviours with James Robinson, Darwyn Cooke will be doing at least two more Parker novels with The Hustle set for release in late 2013. Dale Keown will be joining Jeph Loeb for something called A Plus X.

Of course, the big news were the Eisner Awards, which have been summarized elsewhere on this site. Congratulations to the class of 2012! Darwyn and Ramon face off again in September in the Cartoonist category here for the Joe Shuster Awards.

The juries for 2012 have been selected and are beginning their review process. Thanks to the publishers who assisted us providing copies of nominated books for the jury to review. In this regard The Comic Book Lounge has become an official sponsor of the Joe Shuster Awards, providing some of the books not obtainable from the publisher directly.

It has been a big summer for books as well. Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke was released last week to great acclaim, the colourized Scott Pilgrim Volume 1 by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Nathan Fairbairn is set to arrive next week, as is Jeff Lemire’s The Underwater Welder.

Last weekend was the first Fan Expo Vancouver and the turnout was a lot better than anticipated. The rest of the crew is on vacation for a couple of days so I won’t know final attendance until they get back. We had a smaller staff but the show ran smoothly and the people in Vancouver were really great.

Of course, this weekend it’s the original C2E2… the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo at the BMO Round-Up Centre (Friday-Sunday). I wish I could have gone, but it would have been my 3rd convention weekend in a row. I had a blast there last year.

The following weekend it’s TCAF here in Toronto, at the Metro Toronto Reference Library. It’s a real shame that the organizers decided to schedule the show against Free Comic Book Day and one hopes that this will be the last time it happens. The Doug Wright Awards are being presented on May 5th at Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario. There are plenty of side events scheduled, so check their site for information.

As I mentioned before, Saturday May 5th IS Free Comic Book Day, so make sure you go down to visit your local Canadian comics retailer and show them some love and get some free comics along the way. Many stores have scheduled signings and appearances by comic book creators as well as other activities like barbeques, sales, cosplay and more!

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Sorry about the lack of updates this week, so much has been going on with… well, everything this week.

Between the announcement of the guest list for the March Toronto ComiCon, plans and coordination for Fan Expo Vancouver in April, the Dragon Lady closing and all of the related press coverage that has been getting, rumours of what is going to happen next with the Silver Snail, coordinating some shipments I have coming in and going out, and so on (not to mention my research work during the day) I haven’t had time to do much posting. Robert has been working on more regional retailer round-ups.

Next week:

– we’ll be posting the Eligible Creators List for 2011 that we’ll be looking for feedback on. 2012 Nominating committee will be finalized and we can get on with selecting the list for 2012. Andrew completed the updates to the Webcomics list last weekend so if you haven’t had time to check it out, please take a look and discover some great comics.

– on Wednesday night in Toronto it’s the Jim Henson’s A Tale of Sand Industry Night release party at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop with Ramon Perez. It looks like we have copies of the book available for the event so come on down and check it out of you can.

– Finally, I’ve been working on something top secret that I hope to be able to share the news about with you as early as next Monday.

Highlighting celebrities, shopping, panels and workshops, you will be able to find the newest and hottest in Anime, Manga, Comics, Sci-Fi, Gaming and Horror.

April 21st-22nd 2012, come out and meet your favourite celebrity or creator and shop for the hottest or most rare in comic books, graphic novels, manga, toys, t-shirts and more!

Fan Expo Vancouver™ is brought to you by way of Hobby Star Marketing Inc. HSM was founded in 1992 as one of Canada’s premiere sports and entertainment marketing agencies. The company first staked its claim in 1995 with the successful launch of the Canadian National Comic Book Expo. It has since been re-branded as Fan Expo Canada featuring Comic, Anime, Science Fiction, Horror and Gaming. The event has evolved into a spectacular, annual, multi-media even with prestigious acclaim, becoming North America’s 3rd largest event of its kind.

No guest announcements yet, but there will be postcard distribution to comic stores in BC, Alberta and Washington state on December 28, 2011. As far as I know I will be involved in the event coordinating the Canadian comic guests as well as running the comics programming, as I currently do these services for Fan Expo Canada and the Toronto ComiCONs.

While the announcement is very Hobbystar-centric, it should be noted that we are working with many members of the local comics community, including Vancouver Comicon promoter Leonard Wong, some of the folks involved in the Vancouver Comic Jams, and I’ve been in touch with the organizers of the Victoria Comic Con and VanCAF.

What’s also missing from that initial release is the involvement of the organizers of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo who are part of this as well and will be helping to run the event, and we are also working closely with the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle.

The intention of the event is not to step on any toes or alienate anyone but to create a great event in a market that hasn’t had anything like it before.

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About Us

Comic books, like Jazz, are a North American invention that has been embraced all over the globe --- and from the Platinum Age to the present, Canadian artists, writers and cartoonists have been shaping it along the way.

The Joe Shuster Awards celebrate Canadians who create comics at home or abroad. They are named after Joe Shuster, the Canadian artist that co-created a character that has had tremendous impact on the industry and the world.

The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association seeks to identify and provide FREE resources on the who, what, when and where of Canadians working in comics, selling comics, and celebrating comics.

What if a Canadian Creator Moves Away? Joe Shuster, Hal Foster – are they really Canadian?

Is Superman Canadian? Our position.

Taking us beyond the New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke (1962-2016)

Positive Spirit and Determination: Debra Jane Shelly (1974-2014)

Jerry Robinson (1922-2011)

Thank you, Jerry. We will miss you.

2014 Winners were announced on September, 2014 in Toronto (click image to see results)

2014 Winners Announced in Toronto

2013 Winners were announced on August 24, 2013 in Toronto (click image to see results)

2012 WINNERS ANNOUNCED ON 9/15/2012 IN MONTREAL (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR DETAILS)

2011 WINNERS ANNOUNCED ON 6/18/2011 IN CALGARY (CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR DETAILS)